Watts Rising<\/a>, a collaborative initiative led by HACLA, the Mayor\u2019s Office and more than 40 community organizations committed to improving quality of life in Watts.<\/p>\nWashington and 19-year-old Meah Bordenave-Jenkins were fatally shot Saturday during a Fourth of July block party in Compton. Three others were wounded. The Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department is continuing to investigate the shooting.<\/p>\n
Assemblymember Mike Gipson, D-Carson, who previously employed Washington as a field representative, said he understood Washington had been trying to de-escalate a conflict before the shooting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is no surprise that during the moment of this terrible act, Eric was trying to save a community by preventing a situation that would have taken lives,\u201d Gipson said in a statement Monday. \u201cThis bravery cost him his own life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Karen Bass called Washington a \u201cdevoted public servant\u201d whose \u201cgenerosity of spirit and unwavering commitment to others will leave a lasting mark on Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
John King, HACLA\u2019s chief community affairs officer and Washington\u2019s longtime mentor, said Eric\u2019s loss felt deeply personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like I lost a son,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was such a positive, kind person, and worked so hard to support his community, and then to lose his life to violence, something that he worked so hard to prevent,\u201d King added. \u201cThat made it more difficult to even process.\u201d<\/p>\n
For nearly a decade, King watched Washington grow from a promising young community organizer into one of HACLA\u2019s rising leaders.<\/p>\n
The two first met while working on community efforts connected to the Jordan Downs Redevelopment in Watts. Impressed by Washington\u2019s ability to connect with residents, King hired him as a HACLA intern in January 2019.<\/p>\n
Washington later worked for former Los Angeles City Councilmember Joe Buscaino and Gipson before returning to HACLA in 2022 as a community relations specialist. He was eventually promoted to community engagement manager.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had this ability to navigate through various communities,\u201d King said. \u201cHe was such a genuine, caring, engaging, respectful person that could connect with people, and it showed right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
As community engagement manager, Washington coordinated resident outreach, redevelopment projects and the distribution of resources, including air purifiers and protective masks following the Boyle Heights warehouse fire. He also led HACLA\u2019s inaugural World Cup Youth Tournament and helped oversee community engagement efforts through the Watts Rising initiative.<\/p>\n
But colleagues said the work listed in his job description only captured part of what he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a facilitator in relationships,\u201d said Treasure Sheppard, a project manager with Watts Rising. Before introducing coworkers to longtime community partners, she said, Washington made sure they could be trusted, often connecting people through relationships he had spent years building. \u201cHe was bringing health via trust,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Those relationships, colleagues said, were built on the way Washington made people feel.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you talk to Eric, you feel seen, you feel valued, you feel cared for, you feel heard. And that is a skill that people obtain over the course of a lifetime,\u201d Denerson said. \u201cNo part of him was ever front-facing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elizabeth Elam, a program specialist with Watts Rising, recalled Washington began emails not with a formal greeting but with \u201cHey, family.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe really treated people that way,\u201d she said. \u201cEverything was 100% genuine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kimberly McDowell, another Watts Rising project manager, said Washington brought that same approach to leading coworkers.<\/p>\n
Whenever he interviewed prospective staff members, she said, he insisted the rest of the team participate because those hires would ultimately serve everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was this thorough line of consideration that just isn\u2019t taught,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Katrina Kubicek, Watts Rising\u2019s development officer, said Washington ended nearly every interaction she had with him the same way:<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019I appreciate you.\u2019\u00a0Sometimes people just say that and it doesn\u2019t mean anything,\u201d she said. \u201cBut with Eric, I knew it meant something.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also recalled that even after earning a promotion, Washington continued spending Saturday mornings attending community meetings he was no longer required to oversee simply because he wanted to hear residents\u2019 ideas.<\/p>\n
Ivory Chambeshi, Watts Rising\u2019s director of neighborhood initiatives, said Washington also improved programs in ways that often went unnoticed.<\/p>\n
While helping launch an electric vehicle car-share initiative, Washington realized many residents lacked bank accounts and therefore couldn\u2019t access the service. He helped build a partnership with a nearby bank so residents could open accounts and participate.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis awareness, his being ingrained in the community, allowed him to recognize a barrier for people\u2019s participation in benefiting from his program,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd through his ability to establish relationships, to create partnerships, identified an intervention to then serve the people and also make the program work.\u201d<\/p>\n
King said Washington\u2019s impact extended far beyond the projects he managed.<\/p>\n
![\"Eric](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/LDN-L-ERIC-WASHINGTON-0708-03.jpeg\")
Eric Washington, community engagement manager for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, is remembered by colleagues as a trusted mentor, community builder and public servant. (Courtesy of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles)<\/p>\n
One interpreter who regularly worked HACLA meetings recently told King that Washington had secretly learned her birthday and surprised her by having an entire meeting stop to celebrate her.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was Eric\u2019s touch, and the type of person he was,\u201d King said. \u201cTo make everyone feel welcome and a part of whatever it was, and to be engaged in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Washington grew up in Los Angeles and Compton, King said, and attended Compton College, the University of North Texas and Grambling State University for graduate studies.<\/p>\n
In recognition of his work, HACLA\u2019s nonprofit affiliate, Build Hope Inc., will establish the Eric Washington Community Impact Award, honoring young leaders whose service reflects Washington\u2019s commitment to community.<\/p>\n
Those wishing to support Washington\u2019s family or contribute to memorial efforts can find verified information through links shared by his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo know Eric,\u201d Denerson said, \u201cis to love Eric.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A five-minute walk with Eric Washington rarely took five minutes. Walking through Nickerson Gardens after a site visit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,48,52,51,47,137,50,49,100,10238,10374],"class_list":["post-390013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-news","tag-obituaries","tag-obituary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Eric](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/LDN-L-ERIC-WASHINGTON-0708-04.jpeg\")
Eric Washington served as the community engagement manager for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, where he worked on resident outreach and community engagement initiatives across Los Angeles. (Courtesy of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles)<\/p>\n